The present invention relates to a windup spring drive unit for manually winding up a spring. More particularly, the present invention relates to a windup spring drive unit suitable for being mounted in a toy such as a car or a doll.
A conventional windup spring drive until 101 having a spring as a power source includes, e.g., a spring 102 which is a power source, a windup shaft 103 to wind up the spring 102, an acceleration gear train 105 which transmits rotations of the windup shaft 103 to an output shaft 104, a constant speed mechanism 106 which makes rotations of the output shaft 104 constant, and a casing 107 which accommodates these members therein, as shown in FIG. 5. In the spring drive until 101, the spring 102 is manually wound by pinching and turning a knob (not shown) provided to the windup shaft 103. further, by letting go of the pinched knob and releasing the windup shaft 103, the stored power of the spring 102 is transmitted to the acceleration gear train 105 and causes the output shaft 104 to rotate. Furthermore, the acceleration gear train 105 is also interlinked with the constant speed mechanism 106 and maintains constant-speed rotations of the output shaft 104.
Here, the windup shaft 103 and the output shaft 104 are arranged in parallel with each other and provided so as to transmit rotations through the acceleration gear train 105 consisting of only spur gears. Therefore, the casing 107 is formed into a flat rectangular shape which is thin in the axial direction of both the windup shaft 103 and the output shaft 104.
When this spring drive unit 101 is included and used in a toy such as an animal type toy or a character doll which involves movements, e.g., a walking doll 108 as shown in FIG. 6, the output shaft 104 is arranged in the right-and-left direction because of the relationship with right and left hands 112 or legs (not shown) of the walking doll 108 to be driven. Moreover, when this spring drive unit 101 is included in, e.g., a car toy 109 such as shown in FIG. 7, the output shaft 104 is arranged in the right-and-left direction (parallel to a floor) because of the relationship with tires 110 as targets to be driven.
In the above-described conventional windup spring drive unit 101, however, the windup shaft 103 and the output shaft 104 are parallel to each other, and all the components, i.e., the gears and the spring are arranged in parallel with the both shafts 103 and 104. Therefore, the gear unit takes up less space in the axial direction of the both shafts 103 and 104 and much space in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction (height direction of the gear unit). For example, when the drive unit is included in the walking doll 108, it is set in the height direction of the gear unit on the front and back sides, and hence the doll has a stockily-built figure/shape that the front and back sides of the doll are expanded. In addition, when the drive unit is included in a car toy 109, it is set with the height direction of the casing 107 being determined as a vehicle height direction, which increases the vehicle height as a whole. Thus, in case of the walking doll 108, its shape must be deformed so as to be thicker in the front-and-back direction than an actual human. Additionally, in case of the car toy 109, its shape must be deformed so as to increase the vehicle height as compared with an actual automobile, and the toy must be designed far from the shape of an actual automobile, which restricts a degree of freedom in design.
Further, since the windup shaft 103 is parallel with the output shaft 104, the windup knob 111 and arms of the doll 112 are positioned close to each other when the drive unit is incorporated in the walking doll 108 or the like. This complicates the winding operation of the spring 102, and causing the knob to largely protrude generates a problem of the unnecessary bulkiness. Furthermore, there also occurs a problem that existence of the knob protruding to the side of the doll restricts the movement or the set positions of the arms. Therefore, when the drive unit is mounted in the car toy 109, since the knob 111 protrudes to the side of the car body, a sufficient space to pinch and wind the knob cannot be obtained between the knob and a traveling surface such as a floor, and hence the operation to wind the spring 102 while pressing the tires 110 against the floor or rails is difficult. Thus, the knob 111 must be rotated while lifting the car toy 109 and holding the tires 110 so as not to run idle, which makes the winding operation of the spring difficult. In particular, in case of the car toy which runs on the rails, although it is desired to enable winding of the spring with the car toy 109 set on the rails, the operability of the knob 11 in that state is so poor that improvement on this problem demanded.
Moreover, since the windup knob 111 must protrude in the vicinity of the arm 112 of the doll or to the side of the car body in the vicinity of the traveling surface for the car toy, the design in toys may be considerably restricted in some cases, which complicates the design.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a windup spring drive unit which can improve the operability of winding when incorporated in an apparatus such as a toy and increase a degree of freedom in design of toys.
To achieve this aim, according to the present invention defined in the claims, there is provided a windup spring drive until comprising: a spring which is a power source; a windup shaft which manually winds up the spring; an output shaft; and a gear train which transmits the power of the spring to the output shaft, these members being accommodated in a casing, wherein a crown gear provided in such a manner that its center of rotational axis is parallel with the windup shaft is included in a gear train so that the output shaft and the windup shaft are arranged to be orthogonal to each other, and the windup shaft is caused to pierce in a thin direction of the casing.
Therefore, since the output shaft and the windup shaft are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other, the windup shaft/knob can be set on a surface different from a surface from which the output shaft protrudes when the spring drive unit is mounted in an apparatus such as a toy. Accordingly, the interference between the windup knob and the output shaft can be avoided, and the operability when winding the spring can be improved. Also, a degree of freedom in the movement or the set positions of members driven by the output shaft can be increased, the restriction in design of the prior art can be reduced, and the new design or movement can be given to toys.